September 5, 2013

Thursday Hillary Bash - Elton John Edition

Hillary Clinton has received the Elton John AIDS Foundation honors for her work promoting gay rights and fighting AIDS and apparently all this for a speech. No kidding. Remember, if you are a liberal, that's all it takes to be recognized as great.

NEW YORK — Hillary Rodham Clinton's support of gay rights has earned her a special honor from the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

The former secretary of state will receive its first Founder's Award. In a statement Wednesday, the foundation cited a 2011 speech in which Clinton asserted that gay rights were human rights for helping envision a world without AIDS.

Bill Clinton has also received this award.

Isn't that heartwarming? Elton John recognizes a speech, so of course he must have recognized all of the great work by president Bush on AIDs. Or maybe not so much:

...we asked Elton if he thought the Bush administration had made good on his grand plan to fight AIDS.

"They've made a grave error in giving millions to abstinence programs," he told us. "They don't work. They were told in the beginning that it wouldn't work. It's a tragic waste of money. Please don't listen to those idiots. God almighty."

Which is at odds with a lot of people considering how much George W. bush actually did to fight AIDS. Via Time:

George W. Bush didn't get a whole lot of attaboys on his way out of the White House. But on World AIDS Day near the end of last year, the outgoing U.S. President was the man of the hour, fielding praise from global health advocates and world leaders for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPfAR, which increased tenfold the number of HIV-infected patients in Africa who receive antiretroviral treatments. At megachurch pastor Rick Warren's Global Health Forum on Dec. 1, 2008, Bush lingered to discuss this untarnished highlight of his presidency, a commitment of $15 billion over five years to combat HIV/AIDS. "No U.S. President or political leader has done more for global health," said Warren.

So let's just cross that item off her resume when Hillary runs for president in 2016. I'm sure that for Elton John the Hillary move is political. If Hillary wins in 2016, as the odds seem to indicate she will, an award for Hillary is a foot inside the tent for Elton. Still, the shameless and disgraceful politically driven motivation for an award is disgusting to see. What's next, another Nobel Peace Prize for Obama?